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Suite: Olympic Centennial Untitled
Miguel Berrocal Ortiz1990
The Olympic Museum
Lausanne, Switzerland
Symmetrical composition of two women crawling. White lines across the composition representing four characters shown in profile. This painting reminds us of his sculptures, where each element is a sculptural form unto itself and also in relation to the whole.
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Details
- Title: Suite: Olympic Centennial Untitled
- Creator Lifespan: 28 September 1933 - 31 May 2006
- Creator Nationality: Spanish
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Death Place: Antequera, Spain
- Creator Birth Place: Villanueva de Algaidas, Spain
- Date Created: 1990
- Location Created: Spain
- Sculptor: Miguel Berrocal Ortiz
- Physical Dimensions: w960 x h620 cm (Complete)
- Description: Signed: Berrocal 1990 lower left. From the 50 original works of the Olympic Centennial Suite, the IOC printed 250 lithographs of each work, all measuring 63/90cm, on Arches vellum paper (270 grams), signed by the artist and numbered.
- Collection information: The "Olympic Centennial Suite ", brings together 50 works by international artists who are representative of the variety of contemporary artistic tendencies. It was created on the occasion of the centenary of the foundation of the International Olympic Committee in 1994. For the choice of the works, the IOC brought in two prestigious French art critics, Gérard Xuriguera and Francis Parent. More than two years were necessary to constitute this Suite, with the aim of representing, in just 50 works, the multiplicity of creative work produced over the last five decades, from the figurative to the abstract, from hyperrealism to minimalism, from the new figurative school to abstract expressionism, as well as geometrism, conceptual art, and body art. It was decided that each international artist selected should create a work on a two-dimensional support. Some of these artists, aware of the importance of the message of the Olympic Movement, have rendered this spirit a special homage, while always remaining faithful to their own personal style. This "Suite" can be qualified as the jewel of the art collection of The Olympic Museum.
- Artistic school or movement: As a child, Berrocal instinctively felt drawn to art and research when he already produced his own colours and toys for his amusement. This interest in the relationship between art and science naturally made him choose to study at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and the Escuela de Artes Graficas – he met his future friend and teacher Angel Ferrant during his art lessons – and to enrol the Faculty of Exact Sciences in order to qualify for the entrance examination in Architecture. His first exhibition took place in 1952 in Madrid. After these first exhibition experiences, he was awarded a grant to study in Italy. While exploring the notions of space and shape, Miguel Berrocal discovered in 1956 that sculpture can be “disassembled”, and took part in the creation of the Spanish pavilion at Venice Biennale when still only 23 years old. It was especially contact with the sculptors Cárdenas and Alberto Giacometti that inspired Miguel Ortiz Berrocal to devote himself to sculpture. This turning point marked his transition from the analysis of the problem of filled and empty space and the multiplicity of positions of a single sculpture to the problem of the combinatorial possibility of different volumes. His sculptural exploration led him to experiment constantly with new techniques and materials. Thanks to his scientific training, he succeeded in applying to art technologies previously used only in the most advanced sectors of industry. During the late 1960s, he managed to make 2,000 copies of a sculpture using the technique of injection casting. The sculptor explored the possibilities of shape and interiority of material and developed the notion of “sculpture in the sculpture”. Between 1970 and 1980, he continued his research on monumental sculpture. Miguel Berrocal was closely associated with the Olympic Movement. During the 1990s he created several works for the IOC pavilion at the Universal Exposition in Seville. The Olympic Museum organised a retrospective on the sculptor’s work. The Fundaciòn Escultor Berrocal para las Artes was founded in 2007 in Madrid.
- Type: Paintings
- Rights: International Olympic Committee, 2004, ©IOC/G.Peter
- Medium: Acrylic on paper
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